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KahlessAndMolor t1_jbyweza wrote

Not an exact analog, but "real" wasabi is exceptionally difficult to grow because it needs a stream with moving water, and a specific set of nutrients in the soil near the stream, and it is tough to fertilize them because the water needs to be moving. And if you don't get the nutrients right, the roots are too small/craggy to use, because you have to cut off so much of the skin of the root, so it needs to be fat to use. So most wasabi paste you buy in the store is regular horseradish with some added color and flavor.

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Also, in the animal kingdom, it is considered generally impossible to milk a pig, even though they do produce a significant amount of milk. You can buy cow milk, goat milk, even llama milk, but not pig milk. The basic reason is that mama pigs are very aggressive and large animals and nobody has been able to develop a process to consistently get them to cooperate enough.

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off_the_cuff_mandate t1_jbz3296 wrote

Real wasabi looses its flavor in about a half hour after being prepared and intact rhizomes must be stored very carefully and even then will only last a few months. Which means wasabi can't be shipped.

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Darryl_Lict t1_jbz3nva wrote

I assumed that wasabi would get a mention. I think I've had real wasabi at a fancy schmancy sushi restaurant, but I'm perfectly OK with green dyed horseradish because that's what I was weaned on. In the past few years, farmers have developed agricultural practices to successfully grow wasabi. The one I remember specifically was using greenhouses and water sprayers and not growing in an environment specifically mimicking the free flowing fresh water streams where wasabi grows in the wild.

https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2709/2021/06/PNW605.pdf

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[deleted] t1_jbz8xd8 wrote

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nuclear_splines t1_jbz9vkm wrote

I don’t think that’s what they’re saying at all; it’s not that it hasn’t been done, it’s that no one’s found a practical way to do it at scale and make pig milk (pilk?) a viable product

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[deleted] t1_jbzu5pg wrote

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firedmyass t1_jbz9gon wrote

I mean someone probably tried at some point.

The ROI just may not have been worth the trouble.

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